So What is Stairway to Heaven’s Meaning?Īs the song itself notes, “Sometimes words have two meanings.” The meaning behind “Stairway’”s words seem, if nothing else, infinite. Once they’ve left all they’ve got on the floor, “Stairway” simmers down to a placid lull and Plant reprises its opening lyric, sounding as if he’s aged a hundred years in the eight minutes that have elapsed. When Plant reenters for his final verse, he’s seething, possessed, fighting a battle for his very soul.
From there on out it metastasizes into a hard rock tour de force that rocks harder with increasingly less restraint as it careens and crescendos through monstrous heavy metal movements.īy the song’s seventh minute they’ve lost all control Bonham is flailing and filling with thunderous bombast, driving the band in double time as Page delivers, arguably, his most show-stopping guitar solo in a catalogue replete with show-stopping, gutsy guitar solos. A royally triumphant interlude strips the song of its moody subtleties, and shifts the track into fourth gear. As the minor-tinged tranquility marking “Stairway’”s first half turns to a foreboding tension, a simple quarter-note drum fill brings John Bonham into the mix and Led Zeppelin settle into a steady, mid-tempo groove… but not for long. It begins with an atmosphere of stark serenity, nestling Jimmy Page’s finger-picked acoustic arpeggios in a comforting chorus of mellotron recorders (courtesy of John Paul Jones) as Plant solemnly sings the plight of a God-fearing, miserly old woman. While history and hindsight handily frame “Stairway” as one big, bloated, sonic platitude, it’s important to remember that it does indeed rock, and listening to it is a visceral experience. Review of Led Zeppelin: “Celebration Day”
It’s probably singularly responsible for Rush’s entire oeuvre, as well as every eye-rolling Iron Maiden lyric, to boot. Never officially released as a single, “Stairway” prevailed as rock radio’s most requested song of the ’70s, thus priming the airwaves for every subsequent torch-cuing opus, from “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “War Pigs” to “The Wall” and “Freebird.” “Stairway” ushered in the era of album-oriented rock and, for better or worse, paved the way for prog. And while the hackneyed jokes and Wayne’s World references that punctuate that legacy are more than earned by its overwrought cadence of foggy mysticism, loose social commentary, feigned depth and interminable live performances, at the time of its release, the song was no laughing matter. Every time you flick your Bic to illuminate a dark arena into a rock and roll galaxy, you’re praising “Stairway’”s legacy. It popularized the double-neck guitar, yielding lifetimes of back problems for shredders worldwide. Meaning Behind Led Zeppelin: “All My Love”įor generations of teens, “Stairway” has been the soundtrack to countless bong rips, slides into second base and roadside fatalities.
0 kommentar(er)
